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It’s been a busy week here at The Inbox Jaunt. I hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s guest post from the very creative, Hilary Florence. (Hilary blogs HERE) My machine was smoking late into the evening trying all the variations…Great job,Hilary…Come again any time!

YOU CAN GUEST POST, TOO!

I would like to encourage other bloggers and would-be bloggers to give “guest posting” a try. We’d love to feature YOU here at The InboxJaunt!EASTER/SPRING MOTIFS
Though the weather does not reflect the calendar…it is almost Easter!…You might want to try The Easter Egg tutorial HERE and the Bunny tutorialHERE... They are quick projects that you may have time to whip up before Sunday!

THE MAYPOP LEAF
On Tuesday, we worked on a versatile motif-The Maypop Leaf. As with all the tutorials, I think it is easiest to learn a pattern if you have a few “rails” or drawn lines to establish scale. Once you learn the motif, try modifying it to fit YOUR quilt.FILLING A SQUARE

One way to fill a square with The Maypop Leaf is to draw diagonal lines across the square and stitch leaves radiating out from the center on those lines.
Another way to fill a square: Draw one diagonal line across the square and place two separate Maypop Leafs inside the triangles.FILLING A TRIANGLE

If you have a triangle to fill: Use one Maypop Leaf like the image above, or two Maypop leaves as in the image below:

COMING FRIDAY

Below is a sneak preview of tomorrow’s discussion. We will be talking about using patterned fabric and making samples!

Until next time…Happy Stitching!

Signed,

Lady Kennedy, Maven of Maypop
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to pin and blog with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other uses, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thank you!

It’s your lucky week! We have two FREE free motion quilt tutorials for you! Yesterday, we worked on The Maypop LeafHERE.

Today, we are honored to have Hilary Florence from Quilting Workshop present a tutorial of her original designs. Hilary is a fiber artist and quilter based in the UK. Her work is beautiful! Be sure to pop over to her blog HERE.and see her work, especially her fabulous surface designs. Perhaps she could give us a little tutorial on that, too? hint, hint…

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO…MS. FLORENCE…

Hello Quilters. I am Hilary Florence and I am really thrilled and excited that Lori has agreed to let me do a guest post on her blog. Although our quilting styles are very different, like Lori, I love to create new free motion quilting patterns. So, what better topic than how to start with a simple idea and by playing here and tweaking there, changing it to create:

Theme and Variation

I am going to start with a very simple, elegant design which lets you get into a lovely rhythm on a swinging cross over curve.

Start with a simple downward curve out to the left.

Stitch up the middle stopping just short of the starting point

Now do a mirror image of the curve – out to the right this time, cross over and do another curve to the left – making and inverted S shape.

Go straight up the center, stopping short of the cross over line. You are now ready to begin the motif again with your inverted S – and that’s it. Keep going as long as you want.

So – that’s the theme, on to the variations

If you have a curve, alter the depth of it.

My first curve was pretty shallow. Here I have made it much deeper, into semi – circles. You can do anything in between or even push it even further and make the motif wider than it is long.

If you have a curve, turn it into a V

Instead of soft curves you now have sharp angles, giving the motif quite a different character. The central line is now enclosed in a box. Think of going across from right to left at 45 degrees, making the exterior angles 90 degrees.

If you have sharp angles, round them.

The change here is more subtle. Still Vs rather than curves, but this has a softer look.

If you have straight lines, put a kink in them.

This again is not a great change but it gives another feel. Each side of the box should kink slightly towards the centre. Put the kink in the outer lines only, not the central line. The cross right to left cross-over line is now a little more complicated as it has to first kink upwards towards the upper box and then downwards towards the lower box.

Now come the real fun!

If you have a central line, embellish it!

Anything goes here and there are lots of possibilities. Here are just some examples.

I’ve taken the semi-circle version, started my upward line and then inserted a (more-or-less) symmetrical meander. You could also think of this as a very squashed S.

Next I’ve gone back to my original flat-curve shape and filled it almost meanders. Just enter and exit with a short bit of straight line. This is one of my favourites and it usually finds a place somewhere in my quilts

The sharp cornered square version deserves a couple of sharp thorns.

And here is the same motif with all the corners smoothed out!

This ‘squiggle’ also makes a good centre line. Start curving upwards to the left, change direction and curve gently upwards, change direction again and curve upwards to reach the top of the inverted ‘S’.

If you have a nearly close point, open it up.

In all the samples up until now, the middle line has nearly but not quite met the upper line giving the illusion of a square or circle. Now, I have only gone about two-thirds of the way up (with the embellishing circle placed about one-third of the way up)and dropped the next cross-over line opening the motive up more.

And finally, if you have been there, done that, go back and do it all again!

This one is taken from the current piece I am working on, hence the enclosing ‘tram lines’. It is a combination of two of the above variations. Firstly, I have done the rounded square version without central embellishment. I have then gone back stitching over with the circular version and the central squiggle – and I do mean gone back. Of course you could start at the top again, but I suppose I am too lazy to deal with all the threads involved in stopping and starting. When ever possible, I will stitch down a row and then back up. This is also excellent practise for when dealing with items that are too bulky to turn round.

So there we are – from one idea to many versions. All of the above samples are about 1 inch wide with the exception of the last which is one and a half inches. One inch is a good width to start with, but you can also vary the density by varying the size.

Finally, a word about marking. I often say that I mark as little as possible and advocate learning to love your wobbles! I am in awe of the skill of FMQ quilters who produce absolutely identical motifs, but I like the organic look of everything a bit wonky and each repeated motif having its own individuality. I admit to being anxious about this when I considered Lori’s wonderful tidy accurate quilting and wondered if I should make an exception. In the end, I decided to be true to my philosophy and stay a bit messy! To start off with I advise marking guide lines 1 inch apart until you can feel the motif. You can chose whether to be neat and tidy and do this with a ruler, or free and easy and mark the lines free hand! I would be interested to hear where you find easier/better for you. I personally also feel it helps to draw the motif first, or at least to trace it with your finger.

It remains to thank Lori for allowing me to do a guest spot on her blog. I feel very honoured. At the time of writing this, she has just revealed that she has been asked to do a bimonthly column for the American Quilter magazine and I want to add my voice to the congratulations. It is richly deserved.

Good morning, Quilters! Today is Tuesday and for more than a year now, Tuesday means one thing: a FREE free motion quilt tutorial! Judging by the comments and letters I receive, Tuesday is everyone’s favorite day here at The Inbox Jaunt. (My favorite day is Friday–Open Line Friday, when I pose a question and listen to YOUR advice.)

Today we are working on a very versatile leaf, The Maypop Leaf. Just a quick note–I created a stitched leaf and then went in search of a real leaf that matched. The Maypop Leaf was as close as I could find…

THE MAYPOP LEAF TUTORIAL

Begin by drawing three lines equidistant apart. In the sample below, the lines are 1/2 inch apart. These drawn lines or “rails” are intended to keep our stitching tidy and will be erased when we are finished. Once you are familiar with a pattern, you may not need to use the “rails” at all.

Begin stitching on the right rail. Stitch an angled line up and to the left. Echo back toward the right rail and stop. This creates the stem of our leaf.

Next, stitch two scallops and stop on the left rail.

Stitch another scallop and stop….

It is best if you can stitch this entire next step in one smooth motion. Stitch the second scallop, sweep under the entire leaf and stitch the first part of the next stem…

Continue in this way to create an entire LEFT sided row of Maypop Leaves…

This motif stands alone….Gorgeous!

However, if you’d like a more complex pattern–or if a RIGHT sided Maypop Leaf fits your quilt better…

Begin by stitching on the left rail. Stitch an angled line – up and to the right. Echo back toward the left rail.

Stitch two scallops and stop at the right rail.

Stitch one scallop and stop…

With one smooth sweeping line, stitch the second scallop, under the Maypop Leaf and stitch the next vein your Maypop Leaf chain…

Continue along in this way to create a beautiful right-sided border.

To fill a larger area, or to create a more complex pattern, stitch right and left-sided Maypop Leaf Chains side by side. Another option is to separate the two chains by a small distance and fill the area with berries (stitched circles) or flowers…

NOTE-This tutorial was stitched on Kona grass-green cotton using Sulky 40 wt Rayon thread on top and Aurifil 50 wt cotton in the bobbin using a Schmetz 80 Universal needle on my Bernina 820 without a stitch regulator.

MORE QUILTING TUTORIALS THIS WEEK

I am thrilled to report that tomorrow we have another free motion quilt tutorial for you presented by the amazing Hilary Florence at The Quilting Workshop. Hilary has generously volunteered to provide us with several original design tutorials that I know you are going to LOVE!

On Thursday, we’ll look at some variations of The Maypop Leaf…

Busy week of Free motion quilting, so STAY TUNED to The Inbox Jaunt!

Lori

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog and Pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!